


Skirt Did Good

by outlier



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alex sleeps with many ladies, But it's okay, F/F, Not Canon Compliant, Pining, guest appearances by the Legends of Tomorrow, random DC characters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-20
Updated: 2018-04-20
Packaged: 2019-04-25 10:48:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14377068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/outlier/pseuds/outlier
Summary: After Alex’s adventures with Sara Lance, Kara was not prepared for her sister’s increasing comfort with one night stands. She was also not prepared for her discomfort with Alex's increasing comfort with one night stands. Handling this discomfort is not something she does particularly well.





	Skirt Did Good

**Author's Note:**

> There's mention of sexy-times. Vague allusions to sexy-times. No explicit sexy-times, so I think this rating is okay? Also, there are lots of DC characters in here, and a few lifted and bastardized storylines from the comics, but they can't be taken as accurate portrayals. I know essentially nothing about comics canon outside of what I learn from doing a bit of research on wikis.
> 
> Expect a lot of tropes.

After Alex’s adventures with Sara Lance, Kara was not prepared for her sister’s increasing comfort with one night stands.

“Was that…” She blinked, bit her lip, and tried again. “Was that Wonder Woman?”

Alex, who looked utterly exhausted (and Kara didn’t even want to contemplate why), mostly ignored her as she looked into assorted cabinets vacantly, as if it wasn’t her own kitchen. “Uh, yeah,” she said finally, drawing down a half-filled bag of coffee that looked like it was going to overwhelm her. “Yeah, Diana. Yeah.”

The plan had been meeting for breakfast, or at least Kara had assumed from her unanswered text proposing it. The plan had not been to have Diana Prince smile at her radiantly while recovering her shoe from underneath Alex’s couch.

It had been eerily reminiscent of the month previous, when the Birds of Prey had descended upon National City, chasing a malevolent metahuman who had already gotten himself caught up in the midst of a DEO manhunt. Kara had declined their pilot’s offer to hit the bar after the metahuman was securely behind bars only to find that same pilot slipping into her bomber jacket and out of Alex’s apartment the next morning.

“Lady Blackhawk,” she’d stammered at the time, wondering if Alex had developed a thing for rogueish blondes.

Diana Prince wasn’t blonde, though she did have moments of rogueishness.

“I can’t,” Alex said, abandoning the bag of coffee on the counter and slumping down to rest her forehead on crossed arms. “Christ, but that woman knows what she’s about.”

It had been more information than Kara could ever have wanted, and after placing a bottle of water on the bedside table after watching Alex half-limp and half-crawl her way back before sprawling face down on her nearly sheetless bed, she’d excused herself to self-medicate with a baker’s dozen of sticky buns.

\------

It wasn’t that Kara was checking in on Alex, because she wasn’t. Alex was a grown woman who was processing something, probably, and there was nothing wrong with the fact that Kara couldn’t even trust her to go out to dinner with a colleague who was in town for a consult on improving the sun lamps without dropping by in the morning to find her at the door to Alex’s apartment sharing a soft goodbye kiss. And anyway, _Kimiyo_ , when it came to solar powered superheroes, _Dr. Light had nothing on Supergirl._

 _Nothing_.

But if she _was_ checking on Alex, it was probably a good thing because there was a black clad figure hanging from Alex’s window sill, so it was absolutely justified.

Kara had just turned to position herself for the best possible intruder-capturing vector when Alex stuck her head out of the window, smirking at the figure dangling there. “Kate, come on, you left one of your batarangs.”

The figure made an embarrassed noise and hoisted herself back inside and there was a playful _you don’t need to make up reasons to give me a call if you’re ever in National City again_ and _I’m afraid you’ll have to search me, Batwoman_ and…

 _Oh_.

Kara vacated the area with the crack of a sonic boom.

\------

Kara was not okay with this.

She was okay with helping out the Legends. She was okay with Alex and Sara laughing together over something in the galley because Sara had a girlfriend now who didn’t look like she put up with any shenanigans. She was less okay with Alex managing to get herself kidnapped, especially since the last time that had happened, Alex had almost _died_.

But they rescued Alex, so that was, if not okay, then at least resolved.

This supervillain flirting with her, though? No. Not okay. Kara could admit Scandal Savage was quite pretty and built like a crossfit champion, but she was a _supervillain_. She had literally just engaged in nefarious activities that had required the intervention of a Time Bureau Agent, a DEO Agent, the Legends, and a superhero. Not to mention, from what Kara had heard through the Legends gossip grapevine, she was already _married_ to _two_ women. _At the same time._

This flirting… Kara was in danger of a reckless deployment of her heat vision. _I never did get a thorough frisk, Agent_ , Scandal was saying, as if that was appealing at all. Didn’t she know Alex? Alex might occasionally circumvent the law, but she didn’t supervillain break it. She wasn’t going to be tempted by some… some… hot but very ethically questionable lady.

Alex looked up from her clipboard, unphased. “Are you admitting to possessing a dangerous weapon?”

The supervillain smirked. “I’m not packing anything especially dangerous right now, but if that’s what you’re into, I’m an expert with… weaponry.”

It was awful. It was objectively awful flirting, and Alex shouldn’t have to be subjected to sexually laden back and forth when she was simply trying to do her job.

Kara had had _enough_.

“Hey,” she said, coming up from behind to wrap her arms around Alex’s waist. She dropped a kiss on Alex’s cheek, rubbed her stomach with her thumb when she felt Alex tense against her, and glared at Scandal Savage with an expression she was fairly certainly could not be misconstrued. “Almost finished here, baby?”

She was not immune to the look Alex shot her – startled, disbelieving, mildly freaked out – but she pretended she was.

“Uh, Supergirl,” Alex said, voice a forced calm completely at odds with the way her stomach muscles were hard as a rock beneath Kara’s touch. “Why don’t you let me finish up here and I’ll come find you.”

Kara gave her another kiss on the cheek and fixed Scandal with another glare before leaving Alex with a loving pat to her behind. “Don’t make me wait too long,” she said, grinning, because take that, Scandal Savage. Alex was imaginarily off the imaginary market, and no one in their right mind would mess with Supergirl’s girl. Surely.

\------

If Kara had to describe the look on Alex’s face, she would likely have gone with a weather metaphor: heavy thunderstorms, with a chance of lightning.

“What the hell,” Alex said succinctly, cornering Kara in the Waverider’s galley where she’d been busy using the food fabricator to amass a variety of bahn mi sandwiches.

“I know I went a little overboard,” Kara said, blushing slightly, “but it can do any combination. Look, this one is some kind of pork meatball thing. This one has fish in it. I made this one vegetarian, because why not? I was thinking of trying some kind of gyro mix-up. You want one?”

“No, I don’t want a sandwich,” Alex snapped. She took a step forward, forcing Kara back into the counter. There was a distinct and unmistakable snap, and Kara winced. She had no idea how difficult it was to fix time-travel ships. Maybe all the materials morphed? Maybe it could fix itself and no one would ever know? It seemed like a regular counter, but it was from the future, right? “I want to know why you felt the need to put on that little show back there.”

It seemed to be a pretty clear sign that Alex was angry at _her_.

“Okay, okay… I was helping, okay,” Kara said, trying not to dig her fingers into the counter because the last thing it needed was to have the grip of a nervous Kryptonian emblazoned into it. “I know you’re, you know, working through some things by sleeping your way through the lesbian legion of superheroes…”

“Lesbian and bisexual, and to be honest, I consider myself more of a heroically inclined shadowy figure than a superhero.” Kara jumped, because where had Sara come from? She shouldn’t be able to sneak up on her like that, even if she was some kind of ninja assassin. “Is this tofu?” she asked, pointing at one of the sandwiches. “Do you mind?”

“No,” Kara said, shaking her head vigorously and hoping Sara would read the undercurrent of _please don’t leave me alone_ and stick around to help diffuse Alex’s wrath.

“Cool,” Sara said, grabbing the sandwich and, after a moment of contemplation, snagging one of the pork ones. “Carry on.”

“Yeah, Kara, carry on,” Alex said, eyes narrowed and flinty. “What was that you were saying about me, and I quote, sleeping my way through the lesbian legion of superheroes?”

Kara swallowed hard. “I’m not judging you!” she said, far too loudly. Then, more quietly, “I’m not. But Scandal is a villain, Alex, and she was flirting with you!”

“Uh-huh. I see. And so you thought you’d try to save me from myself? Good job, Kara. Without your timely intervention, I’d probably be having sex with her right now in that glass cage they use as a cell on this ship.”

Alex’s head was cocked angrily to the side and her hands were on her hips and Kara felt about 5 inches tall because Alex was using her iciest voice. “That’s not what I meant,” she protested weakly.

“No, it’s good you’re here,” Alex said, taking a very definitive step back. “Having you disapprove of my sex life is exactly what I need right now. I was feeling like I wasn’t getting enough disappointment from my loved ones lately.”

“Alex…”

Alex put up a silencing finger. “Not now, Kara.”

\------

Kara was on her tenth bahn mi when Sara wandered back into the galley.

“Hey,” she said, sliding onto a seat beside Kara and twisting to face her.

“Hey,” Kara replied, staring morosely at the table top.

She chewed her way through the rest of her sandwich before Sara spoke again.

“So, you fucked that up.”

“Yeah,” Kara said, shoulders slumping. She poked at one of the remaining sandwiches but didn’t pick it up.

“You were going for what, exactly?”

Kara’s head dropped to the table. “I don’t know,” she whined. “Scandal was flirting with Alex and I didn’t like it, and Alex has been…” she trailed off, thumping her head against the table again.

“Enjoying the company of women?” Sara offered.

“Yes!” Kara rolled her head to the side so she was looking at Sara. “So many superheroes! Wonder Woman!”

Sara looked impressed, which didn’t help.

“You. Lady Blackhawk. Dr. Light. Batwoman,” Kara continued miserably, reaching up to rub a breadcrumb from her forehead. “That I know of. She mentioned meeting Zatanna while she was in Geneva for work last month, so who knows. She’s been going out to the DEO facility in the desert a lot recently, so maybe she’s got something going on with Lucy Lane. I don’t know. I don’t understand.”

“She has been busy,” Sara said, patting Kara on the side of the head. “It seems like a lot of effort when she could settle down with you instead.”

“I know!” Kara shot upright, happy that someone finally saw things her way, before realizing just what Sara was implying. “Wait,” she said, pushing away from the table, “you don’t think… I mean, it’s not like she’d want to… She’s… We’re… As if she’d…”

Sara watched impassively as Kara felt herself starting to unhinge. “I’m sure you’re right,” she said, slapping her hands against her thighs as she stood. She gave Kara a smirk and a clap on the shoulder and snagged another sandwich on her way out. “It’ll all work out. It’s not like you’re jealous or anything. Just give her a little time and apologize and maybe not infer that she’s a slut again. That should do it.”

Kara wanted to protest – which part she wasn’t sure – but couldn’t because Sara was gone and she was horrified, and _Rao_ , this was not the way her day was supposed to go.

\------

Alex forgave her slowly until she forgave her all at once, but that was mainly because Kara crashed to earth and made a giant crater and ripped her uniform to shreds. It looked worse than it was, but Kara maybe milked it a little bit because Alex was cradling her and frantically checking for injuries and it felt nice. It felt like old times, when Alex wasn’t furious with her, and she liked the way Alex’s fingers were fluttering over the line of her jaw looking for damage.

“Hey,” she said dopily, and maybe she was a little more shaken that she’d realized. “Do you love me again?”

Even in the midst of chaos, Alex could still give spectacular eye-roll. “Of course I still love you,” she said gruffly.

\------

Kara didn’t know how everyone at the DEO didn’t know her secret identity but apparently they didn’t, and so Alex was mad again. It wasn’t Kara’s fault that one of the uninitiated overheard their exchange in the crater, or that rumors ran rampant for well over a week about Agent Danvers’ love affair with Supergirl. Alex scowled and used the force of her glare to quell what she could, but Kara still heard the whispers in locker rooms and at the gym and after briefings. The downside was that Alex was grumpy again. The upside was that it was significantly easier for Kara to stare down… well, anyone who seemed to let their eyes linger on Alex for too long.

It was extremely satisfying. For Supergirl.

Kara Danvers couldn’t stare down anyone. Kara Danvers could try, but if they were having dinner together and their server ignored Kara so that she could drool all over Alex, for example, then her early, inadvertent mention of ‘my sister will be back in a minute so let’s wait for her’ apparently took all of the sting out of even her most menacing look. It helped that Alex didn’t even seem to notice when she was being drooled over, but only a little. And then she heard the DEO was thinking of setting up a field office in Freeland because of reports of meta-human activity, and that Alex had been selected to join the stand-up team and had agreed only with J’onn’s assurance that he would keep a close watch on Kara and… _No._

As soon as she’d heard, Kara had decided to give Freeland a quick fly-over. She’d found a very pretty, very gay meta-human fighting crime while also in medical school, which meant she might as well start picking out the floral arrangements for her nuptials with Alex. Was it wrong to miss the days when Alex was so confused about her sexuality that she channeled all of that chaotic energy into insecurity?

Kara sighed, because it was. Alex was climbing out of her shell and into bed with lots of beautiful women, and that was a good thing.

It was. Kara was not jealous, and she didn’t want to sleep with Alex because, well, she just didn’t, okay.

\------

“Winn,” Kara said breathlessly, as if the flight to his apartment had actually taxed her cardiovascular system, “I want to sleep with Alex.”

Winn had been watching tv in his boxers and eating cold Chinese straight from the box, which was probably why he’d choked when Kara had flown through the window he’d had open to catch the breeze.

She patted him on the back to help with that, found him a tee-shirt, and took a bite of his dinner.

“I’m sorry, did you say you wanted to sleep with Alex?” he asked once Kara settled onto the couch beside him.

“Yeah?” she said apologetically, because he was still a little red. “But she seems to be sleeping with every other available female superhero but me?”

Winn’s eyes widened. “She has?” He blinked, absorbing the information. “I mean, get it Alex, I guess, but hey… she probably shouldn’t be doing that since you have feelings for her.”

“I didn’t say I had feelings for her,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest in a huff. “I mean, of course I love her, but that doesn’t mean I want us to move in together and have breakfast together every morning and not date anyone else ever again.”

“Okay.” Winn patted her thigh gently. “But are you sure about that?”

“That would be ridiculous,” Kara said, rolling her eyes dramatically. “Sisters don’t do that sort of thing, even if they’re not actually related and are only really foster sisters because everyone kept calling them that.” She paused, frowned. “Not to diminish our relationship, but how come no one asks Iris and Barry these kinds of questions?”

Winn sat back, because Kara had gotten uncharacteristically belligerent and was digging her fingertips into her arms with enough pressure to crack non-Kryptonian bone, and he was supportive but he wasn’t stupid.

“I feel like this is a conversation you should be having with Alex,” he said slowly, “and possibly a therapist. It’s seems like there are a lot of unresolved issues going on here.”

“I don’t see why she has to find these superheroes from all over the place when I’m right here,” Kara said, continuing on as if he hadn’t spoken. “I’m convenient. I’m incredibly convenient.”

She looked so disgruntled that Winn chanced another pat on the knee. “Maybe she just doesn’t realize how convenient you are,” he said and winced, because when he took a second to play it over again in his head, it didn’t sound entirely flattering.

But Kara looked at him with conviction and nodded. “I’m _so_ convenient. Super convenient. I couldn’t be more convenient. I’m the most convenient of conveniences.”

Which settled it, he supposed.

\------

Arguing her convenience turned out to be more complicated than Kara had anticipated. A lucky semi-disaster had kept Alex from joining the Freeland stand-up team, which was one worry off her plate. There had been a brief moment of panic when she heard that Wonder Woman was back on the continent, but apparently there was some kind of dust-up in Gotham keeping her attention so that was a relief. A double relief, even, because Batwoman probably wouldn’t be doing any travelling either. Sure, the city was abnormally beleaguered, but at the moment, Kara had larger concerns. Chief among them was her inability to do anything other than stammer and derail herself by going off on a tangent whenever she tried to broach the topic because apparently telling one’s oblivious foster sister that one wanted to indulge in Sapphic bliss together didn’t trip off the tongue nearly as easily as the obvious pun would make it seem.

She thought perhaps she could woo Alex, but they’d had three ice cream dates so far and Alex still seemed unaware. Kara had held her hand, put an arm around her shoulder, and kissed her on the forehead; Alex seemed appreciative, certainly, and reciprocated the affection, but whatever it was that would help transition them into the part where they ripped off one another’s clothes was still elusive. Kara had even considered being straightforward – would Alex want to have a lot of sex and maybe start a wedding registry? – but the timing never seemed right. Winn would give her hopeful thumbs up whenever either of them was injured in a fight, having suggested that as the perfect time to broach the subject, but Kara was hesitant. What if Alex committed to something while on pain medicine that she uncommitted to as soon as she was off it? She’d finally stopped pretending to delude herself. She didn’t want to be a notch on Alex’s belt. She wanted to be the _whole_ belt and once she had the belt, she was going to keep it.

There were times when she missed Cat Grant most, and this was one of them. Of course, it wasn’t as if Cat would have stroked her hair and commiserated. She would have told Kara to grow a pair and stop wasting her time, but Kara knew it would have been more comforting coming from the actual Cat instead of the Cat inside her mind.

If only Max Lord and his stash of red K hadn’t disappeared. Maybe she could fake it? But no, then they’d have to activate the DEO’s elite team, which Alex was on, and Alex would have a convenient way to dismiss everything she said anyway, so it was an altogether stupid plan. Of course, she wasn’t exactly in a position to turn away stupid plans…

“Kara, no,” Winn said, when she ran it by him. “You’re overthinking this. Just talk to her, and if you can’t figure out how to do that, then show up at her apartment naked, I guess. It would be pretty hard to misinterpret that.”

It had been snippier than she was used to from Winn, now that she thought about it.

She put the naked plan on the backburner. It seemed like she should probably try a few more things first before she pulled it off the shelf, but if all else failed or if she heard that Wonder Woman was going to be visiting the West Coast, well…

\------

Practice, Kara decided. She would slowly work her way up to seeing if Alex would like to shed the sister label for something a little more carnal/committed in nature. She started about a mile above Alex’s apartment, hovering in the air and finding Alex below her – folding her laundry and wasn’t that adorable.

“I love you, Alex,” she said, out loud and confidently. “Also, I think you should stop having sex with other superheroes and only have sex with me.”

She liked the sound of it.

The next night she tried it from three-quarters of a mile up. Alex was taking a shower and so she didn’t look, even though she wanted to.

Still confident. Still right.

By the end of the week, she’d worked her way down until she was perched on a rooftop a few buildings away from Alex’s. Alex was on the phone with Eliza and it didn’t seem to be going wonderfully, so there was always the chance that Alex might call her next for a little comfort. It wasn’t the strongest of chances because Alex was something of a master of sublimating her feelings when she wasn’t outright hiding them away, but there was always hope.

A week later, and Kara had made it to Alex’s apartment building. She floated in the air outside of Alex’s bedroom and watched through the wall as Alex tucked her arm under her pillow and hugged it close. Her hair was already mussed as if she’d been tossing and turning, and Kara considered slipping in through the window and curling up behind her. Alex always let her be the big spoon, which was possibly almost a declaration of returned love if looked at in a certain light.

She stalled out at Alex’s apartment, but figured that was okay. Practice was still practice, even if it didn’t result in progression.

It was less okay when she arrived to find Alex in bed with Sasha Bordeaux, who used to work for Maxwell Lord of all people. True, she’d figured him out for the sociopath he was and left his company, but still, that wasn’t really a comfort when she was faced with the sight of Alex digging her fingers into Sasha’s shoulders and rolling her hips up because Sasha had _her_ fingers…

Kara nearly dropped from the sky.

She needed a drink.

\------

Kara didn’t even really know the new bartender at the alien bar she sometimes frequented, much less how the bartender had gotten hold of her phone. Maybe she’d told her the password? Kara couldn’t quite remember, but she definitely heard Alex pick up after 5 rings.

“Kara?”

No, Kara tried to say, because she wasn’t the one talking on her phone. That was the nice lady who’d taken it away from her.

“Just keep her there,” Kara heard. “I’ll come get her.”

That didn’t seem wise. Kara tried to explain that she could get herself home because Alex was having sex with someone who wasn’t her, but the bartender shrugged and told her it had already been done and wouldn’t refill her glass, no matter how much Kara begged.

She put her head down for a moment, and when she raised it again, Alex was there, scowling down at her.

“Come on,” she said tiredly, putting her forearms under Kara’s armpits and giving a firm hoist to no avail.

“Nope,” Kara said succinctly.

“Kara, it’s late. Let’s get you home, and we’ll talk about this in the morning.”

“I’m fine,” she protested, even though there was a moment when two Alexes were looking at her with a decided lack of amusement, “and you smell like sex.”

Alex’s face did something. Kara wasn’t quite sure what. “Because you were having sex,” Kara added, in case Alex didn’t understand the connection. “I saw.”

When Alex bent over her to hiss in her ear, Kara wanted to protest that she had superhearing. “If you don’t come with me right now, I’m going to call J’onn.”

Kara didn’t think she wanted that, because J’onn could read minds. He couldn’t read her mind, but what if he could? For just a minute, maybe, because she was a little drunk, and maybe that made a difference. Then he’d know how she felt about Alex, and she wasn’t sure that would be for the best.

She blinked, and suddenly she was outside and leaning heavily on Alex. And sure, she was a little impaired, but maybe this was what she had been practicing for. “I love you, Alex,” she said, carefully enunciating the words. “I wish you’d stop having sex with everyone but me. You should start having sex with me and stop having sex with people who are not me. I’m convenient. Ask Winn. He knows.”

It wasn’t technically perfect, but Kara was proud of herself nonetheless. “I’ve been practicing,” she added, because she thought Alex should know. “A lot.”

She thought she heard Alex mutter _I’m going to kill him_ , but figured she had to be wrong because it made no sense.

“So what do you think?” Kara asked, trying to bring Alex in focus. It was difficult, because there were streetlights and somehow her face was shadowed, even though Kara had x-ray vision. “Should we start looking for dresses?”

“Kara, you’re drunk.”

Kara nodded, because that had been the point. “So, are you going to say yes or not?”

“To what?”

She’d thought she’d made that clear. “Convenience. You don’t need other superheroes, Alex. I’m right here.”

She blinked again and they were in her apartment and Alex was taking off her shoes. “You’re going to say yes, right?” she asked, and Alex jumped in surprise.

“Go to sleep, Kara,” Alex said softly, coming to stand over her. She brushed her fingers through Kara’s hair and leaned down to kiss her forehead, and Kara tipped over into unconsciousness with a smile on her face. Mission accomplished.

\------

The next time Kara saw Winn, Alex had a hand on his sternum and was pinning him to the wall.

“But I didn’t!” he screeched, looking absolutely terrified. “I swear I didn’t! You can ask Kara.”

Kara took in the scene with confusion.

“Kara!” Winn reached out to her as if she was a lifeline. “Tell her! Tell her it’s not what she thinks!”

She needed more information before she could say for that for sure, but the look in Winn’s eyes made her capitulate.

“It’s probably not what you think it is,” she said, licking dry lips. She felt as if she’d downed a small ocean that morning, but even that combined with full sunshine hadn’t fully conquered the lingering dryness brought about by her indulgence of the night before. “What do you think he did?”

“You know what he did,” Alex growled. “He took advantage of you.”

Kara blinked, not quite sure how Winn could even do that. “He’s right. He definitely didn’t do that.”

“You don’t have to defend him,” Alex said, pinning Kara with a glare.

“But she does!” From the way Alex’s attention snapped back to him, Kara thought Winn might have been better off without the interjection. “We’ve never slept together! I promise!”

Kara nodded. “He’s right about that, too.”

Alex removed some of the pressure of her hold but didn’t back away completely. “So what you said last night about you being convenient? About asking Winn, because he’d know? About _practicing_ ,” Alex said meaningfully.

The night before came back to Kara slowly and painfully.

Winn seemed disappointed, which didn’t help. “You didn’t really go with the convenience angle, did you?”

Alex finally released him, but only so she could turn the full might of her scowl on Kara.

“I said other things too,” Kara said hopefully, trying not to squirm. She needed a good emergency to handle. One that would take a very long time. Maybe arson at an abandoned warehouse, so she could put out the fire and chase down the perpetrator. Possibly something in Europe, so Alex couldn’t follow – at least, not immediately.

Alex pointed at her. “You come with me,” she said, already stalking off to the training room. Winn gave her the _best of luck on getting yourself out of this colossal screw up_ grimace of encouragement, which was really more grimace than encouragement, and Kara considered a sudden and abrupt move to the Fortress of Solitude. It would certainly help with the rent if not the crushing embarrassment.

She found Alex sitting on the raised platform where they regularly spent time sparring. Her forearms were braced against her thighs and her face was guarded; Kara made a solemn vow to herself never to drink Thanagarian Dram ever again.

“So maybe you want to help me get this straight,” Alex said, looking up at her. Kara wished for J’onn’s mind-reading powers, then decided it was probably best not to know exactly what Alex was thinking at that specific moment. “The reason you’ve been so weird about everything is because you want to have sex.” Alex paused for a moment before tapping her hand against her chest. “With me.”

“When you say it like that, it doesn’t sound very straight,” Kara said weakly, both aware that a joke wouldn’t help the situation and unable to do anything other than make one just in case it managed to deflect everything.

Of the available options, it fell squarely in the _didn’t help_ category.

One look at Alex’s expression prompted her to try again. “It’s not that I want to have sex with you, per se,” she began, but forced herself to stop because that was patently untrue. “What I mean is, it’s not that I only want to have sex with you. I mean, I do only want to have sex with you. Not with anyone else. And, I would like it if you only wanted to have sex with me. We could only have sex with each other.”

She paused, hopeful.

“Because it’s convenient,” Alex said in a tone that was clearly displeased.

Kara bit her bottom lip hard enough to draw blood had she been someone else. “It would be convenient, but mostly because I’m in love with you.”

She’d been hoping for some kind of reaction, but Alex’s expression remained maddeningly unreadable. “You just decided this? Out of the blue?”

It had been less of a decision and more like a lack of a decision, Kara wanted to say. It had been a happening that she’d tried to ignore for a very long time, hiding the truth from herself, because willful denial seemed better than possible rejection. Only, willful denial couldn’t be denied. The very act of denying it made it undeniable, and so she’d been left with the awkward process of learning something she already knew. She was in love with Alex. She wanted to be with Alex, and she wanted Alex to want to be with her. It had been easier to pretend that she hadn’t known those things when Alex was presumably straight. It had been less easy when Alex was with Maggie, because that meant there was an opportunity she hadn’t taken, but it was still an acceptable loss. Alex was happy so she was happy for her.

Maybe Alex was still happy. Why shouldn’t she be? She wasn’t tied down. She wasn’t beholden to anyone. She could have all of the one night stands she wanted, and if there was a revolving door of beautiful women moving through her apartment, then good for her. Right? But Kara knew better. Alex had thrived when she was with Maggie. She’d fit so neatly into being one-half of a whole that it made Kara ache. It stood to reason that she’d thrive again as one half of the Kara-and-Alex whole.

“No,” Kara said softly, because she had gone about this in absolutely the wrong way. She didn’t know why these things didn’t point themselves out before they’d been done. Why would Alex trust a drunken confession? Why would she trust erratic behavior, anger, and jealousy? Why couldn’t she have conquered her terror and fessed up before thoroughly undermining herself. “I didn’t think you’d be interested before.”

She slumped down against the wall, mirroring Alex’s pose. “You must think I’m…” She trailed off, not quite sure what Alex would be thinking. That she was foolish? That things had been better before, when Kara hadn’t driven a spike into their relationship that would add yet another bisection to it? That she was deluded? Kara, who had decided to stop pretending that she didn’t know things, settled stiffly into the understanding that she’d sabotaged herself. If she failed at something when she hadn’t honestly tried to the best of her ability, it wasn’t as bad, right?

Right?

No. She was Kara Zor-El, last daughter of Krypton, and she had to do better than that.

“I started figuring it out about the same time as you started dating boys that didn’t remotely deserve to be with you,” Kara said, looking at her hands. “Relationships on Earth are different. My parents loved each other, but that was secondary, in a way. I grew up knowing that one day I would make an alliance that would strengthen and advance the position of my House. What did I know about what went on behind closed doors between people who loved one another? I thought it would be simple. I would be joined with another and we would apply to get a child from the birthing matrix and hopefully enjoy companionship.”

She looked up to see Alex regarding her thoughtfully. She straightened, crossing her legs in front of her, and forced herself to tell the story to some part of Alex, at least. She settled on her shins, hidden behind the rumple of black uniform pants, and the tips of her fingers hanging over her knees.

“There was so much to learn here that it was years before I even got around to thinking about human relationships. We look alike, but I’m not even the same species, Alex. I was an alien, but so was everyone else. I wasn’t sure I could even have a relationship. I wanted to. Earth is my home now, and I’ve learned how to be a human. Maybe if I’d matured on Krypton I would have learned that things weren’t so different there. Maybe relationships on Krypton were more like those here on Earth than I realized. I don’t think that’s true, but maybe it was.”

With a scrape of cotton, Alex lowered herself to the floor. It put Kara’s gaze level with her neck, mostly hidden away under the high collar of her black pullover, but Kara knew it. She knew the dip at the base of Alex’s throat and the tendons that framed it in a V, especially when she was stressed.

Kara shook her head. “Anyway, you started dating stupid boys and I tried to find someone because it seemed like something I should do.”

She caught the beginning of a smile on Alex’s face. Kara’s early attempts at dating had not gone spectacularly well.

“And then I realized I didn’t want to be with anyone else. I wanted to be with you, and I thought great. Another way I’m not normal. I was pretty sure you were allowed to like boys or allowed to like girls because I hadn’t really figured out bisexuality, but I did know that you weren’t supposed to like people you called sister.”

Alex stretched a foot out and bumped the toe of her shoe against Kara’s knee, which had to mean that she wasn’t absolutely furious. She was still a little mad, maybe, but Kara was pretty sure absolute fury was off the table. “So it wasn’t out of the blue,” she finished awkwardly, chancing a look up.

She hated when Alex was mad at her. Mad Alex had narrowed eyes that flashed angrily. She had a way of clenching her jaw and pursing her lips that hollowed out her face, leaving nothing but sharp, cutting angles, and it was awful, seeing that jagged anger directed her way. It was a relief, then, to see that Alex had softened. If anything, she looked fondly exasperated, which was an expression Kara had seen directed her way so often that she privately thought of it as her own special look.

“I tried taking you on dates,” she offered with a shy smile, “but you didn’t seem to notice.”

Alex rolled her eyes. “When?”

“For ice cream.”

“So which of the thousand times we’ve had ice cream together was supposed to be a date?”

“I took you out to three different fancy places,” Kara protested. “I _paid_.”

Alex grinned, and there was a hint of mischief to it that Kara found fascinating. “Oh, yeah? So those were supposed to be dates? The part where you paid did seem odd.”

“ _Alex_.”

“ _Kara_.”

The last few minutes had seen a marked improvement in Alex’s mood, so Kara felt confident enough to offer, “You’re not mad?”

“Oh, I’m mad,” Alex said, brow arched. “No more spying on me. Understand?”

Kara wanted to protest that it hadn’t actually been spying, or at least not an amount of spying that was above and beyond the baseline level of _spying-on-Alex_ she’d been doing since becoming Supergirl. Of course she checked in on her, because Alex needed someone checking in on her, and because she needed to know that Alex was safe. That was more like common sense. Alex did dangerous things for a living and sometimes employed unhealthy coping mechanisms in response to stressors, which meant she occasionally needed cuddles or movie nights or Kara otherwise invading her space for palliative purposes.

Since they were talking about it, and since there existed a distinct possibility that they would never talk about it again once they left this room, Kara had to try. “What about the other part?”

The teasing atmosphere that had developed disappeared, and Kara desperately wished there was a superpower that allowed her to reel back things she really shouldn’t have said.

“That’s… complicated,” Alex said softly, already pushing to her feet. Kara figured it was so she could have a head start on running away and honestly didn’t blame her. “Let me process this for a little while, okay?”

Kara nodded glumly. It didn’t sound promising. “Okay,” she echoed, giving Alex a smile with as little wobble to it as she could manage.

“You know I’ll always love you, right?”

Kara nodded again.

“No matter what.”

“Of course,” she said thickly. “Me too.”

The sound of the door closing behind Alex was like the shutting of a book.

\------

“Hey, well, at least you told her,” Winn said over conciliatory milkshakes. “That takes courage.”

“I got drunk and blurted it out because I was jealous.”

“Still,” he said, jabbing his straw against the corner of the cup to capture one last, elusive sip. “You did it, so I’m going to say it’s a victory.”

Kara thumped the back of her heel against her chair and winced when she heard the groan of stressed metal. “I don’t feel very victorious.”

Winn fizzled a bit at her downcast expression. “Yeah. It could have gone better.”

“It really could have,” Kara agreed.

\------

The only thing to do about unrequited romantic love was to punch things until it went away. Alex had been decidedly quiet since that day in the training room, and Kara had been trying desperately not to push. The last thing Alex needed was more Kara-related pressure. Her very arrival had changed the entire course of Alex’s life. Now almost everything Alex did revolved around Kara. Her job revolved around Kara. Half of her free time was spent with Kara. She’d devoted countless hours to trying to protect Kara.

Even Kara was sick of herself.

She missed the days when James would join her in the special room they’d rigged for Supergirl punching activities. He could hit a bag, and she could knock engine blocks out of cars. There was a beautiful simplicity to sharing a little bit of properly channeled aggression with a friend. They hadn’t really regained their pre-kiss, pre-Guardian friendship, though, so it was just her and a junk Camry, with no one else there to share her frustration. She’d considered Winn, but the thought of him punching anything was almost laughable. There was Lucy, but she was at the desert facility and anyway, it wasn’t as if Kara had learned to properly channel her jealousy yet. Inviting someone for a friendly workout session and then probably giving into the temptation to quiz them on their relationship with Alex while simultaneously punching her way through a car was probably not the best way to improve upon that. She could have asked J’onn, but no. It would be too embarrassing.

By herself then.

“Okay,” she said, taking her glasses off and setting them aside. She shook out her shoulders and assumed a boxing stance in front of the car, suspended from fender to bumper on a massive metal frame. “I hate that I’m not normal.”

That one deserved a few punches. Her fist crunched dents into the Camry’s hood with a jab, jab, cross.

“I hate that I couldn’t keep this to myself.” Cross, cross, cross, jab, right hook.

Something in the inner workings of the car snapped.

“I hate that she doesn’t feel the same way.” Right hook, right hook, right hook, jab.

“I hate that I ruined everything.” Jab, jab, jab, overhand right.

The car swayed sluggishly, and she held out a hand to stop its motion.

“I hate that she’ll never be able to look at me the same way.” Jab, cross.

“I hate that she’s going to find someone else and I’ll have to pretend to be happy for her.” Jab, cross.

“I hate that things are so weird right now.” Jab, cross, left hook, right uppercut.

“It’s all my fault.” Overhand right, overhand right, overhand right. “I’d already spent a decade accepting it.” Left elbow, right uppercut. “Having hope was stupid.” Jab, push kick…

Something exploded from the other side of the car in a cacophony of screeching metal. It felt just about right.

\------

It wasn’t that Alex was avoiding Kara.

Okay, it was.

She scrolled through her contacts and punched the call button when she hit Sara Lance. To be honest, she didn’t entirely understand how Sara even had cell service, existing outside of time as she did, but Alex had learned to assimilate a lot of apparently impossible information over the course of her lifetime.

“Yo, Alex. What’s up?”

Alex looked around furtively, even though she knew herself to be alone in her apartment. Then again, she apparently wasn’t ever truly alone, not with Kara in the skies above National City. Not that that was a bad thing since Kara was a superhero who kept an eye on all of the city’s citizens. She sighed. “I have a situation.”

“Like an anachronism type of situation?” Sara asked, and Alex could hear her shifting in her seat. “Gideon hasn’t notified us of anything.”

“Like a Kara is in love with me kind of situation.”

The shifting stopped. “Oh. So she told you, then.”

“What do you mean, she told me _then_?”

“I mean I didn’t think she’d do it. Good job, Supergirl.”

“You knew about this?”

On the other end of the line, Sara sighed. “Do you have beer in your fridge?”

Alex blinked, confused. “Yeah. Why?”

“Because there’s nothing going on right now and Ava’s got to work late.” A second later, a time portal appeared in Alex’s living room, and she tried to appear as if this was a normal thing. “So,” Sara continued, her voice now coming from directly in front of her, “how about we knock back a few and talk this out?”

“Come on in, I guess,” Alex said, trying to shift from talking about her confusing situation to someone from the comforting distance of the phone and incalculable time, distance, and dimensions away to talking to someone who was kicking off her boots and settling onto her couch. “It sounds like you and Ava are doing well.”

Sara’s grin was softer than Alex ever recalled seeing on her. “We are, but I’m not here to talk about me.”

Alex groaned and rose, ignoring Sara’s laughter as she disappeared behind an open refrigerator door.

“I believe one of the last things we said to one another was that there was someone else out there for each of us, and for more than just one night,” Sara said, voice raised to reach Alex with her head buried in the fridge. “Though I understand you’ve been doing pretty well for yourself in the one night category too.”

Bottles rustled as Alex slammed the fridge door shut. “No,” she said, denying the very existence of the conversation itself.

“Wonder Woman? I am impressed.”

Alex held out a bottle of beer and tried not to blush. “Kara told you?”

“Yep.” Sara took a long pull from her bottle, eyes twinkling. “So you’ve come to me for more excellent advice.”

She had, actually, because Sara gave good advice for a time-traveling assassin she’d gotten drunk and slept with.

“Maybe,” Alex hedged.

Sara shrugged. “The only other people I know in a similar situation are Iris and Barry and, well, we met at their wedding, so you know how that turned out.”

“Let’s not skip straight ahead to getting married.” Alex edged her nail under the bottle’s label and began to pull. “How about we start with how you knew before I did.”

Sara, who looked far too amused at the situation to be any comfort, grinned widely. “She told me after you got mad at her for that incident with Scandal Savage.”

The incident with Scandal Savage, where Kara momentarily lost all reason and acted like they were together because a bad girl was badly flirting with her. Right. Also known in Alex’s mind as the time Kara had _patted her on the ass_. Also, the time Kara had accused her of sleeping with any and all vaguely interested lady superheroes. It had been a true bright spot in their relationship.

“The world’s most powerful being, sulking because the girl she likes hasn’t noticed that she likes her and is also mad at her.” Sara dug her toes into the couch cushion and stretched lazily. “If I’d known she was so inclined, maybe I could have given her some pointers.” She laughed when Alex narrowed her eyes angrily. “About how to woo beautiful girls. That’s all.” She shrugged coyly. “Maybe.”

There had been a time when Alex hadn’t even been able to look at Sara without blushing and stammering, and now she was looking at her as if trying to remember what weaknesses she might have had in her fighting style.

“When I met Maggie and began to accept that I might be gay, I went back over everything in my life, looking at it through a different lens. I reinterpreted interactions. I looked for underlying, subconscious motives. I re-examined _everything_ ,” Alex said, voice verging on a whine. “I don’t have the mental energy to do it again.”

“If you’re not interested, tell her you’re not interested,” Sara said, as if it was as simple as that. “You won’t do either of you any favors if you drag out the inevitable.”

\------

No favors. If Alex was going to say no anyway, there was no sense leaving them in that liminal space between awkwardness and heartbreak. Kara was strong. She’d recover from the rejection and their relationship would return to what it had been. It might not return immediately – Alex didn’t expect miracles – but they’d find their way back to movie nights and shared pizza and ice cream on the couch. It was what she knew she should do. Rip off the bandage and nip this in the bud. Use any idiom at her disposal to apply the brakes.

But…

Was it fair to say no without doing the proper due diligence? She spent most of her time carrying a gun, but at heart, she was a scientist. A scientist wouldn’t make definitive claims without evidence, and the truth was, she didn’t have any. Even if she was going to draw inferences from her autobiographical narrative, the overarching cordoning off of Kara into a space with ‘sister’ spray painted across the front would confound everything.

There was also the thing where she wasn’t especially prone to revelations about her true self. She hadn’t let herself honestly entertain the notion that she was attracted to women until a set of dimples and sinfully beautiful dark eyes forced her to confront the inescapable. Until then, she’d preferred the comfort of sublimation, denial, and a determined unwillingness to indulge in the type of introspection that might have unearthed inconvenient truths.

To answer this question, the one of whether or not she was even capable of reciprocating the feelings Kara had described, she had to engage with it without bias. It was likely an impossible task. After all, she had more than a decade of interactions and relational existence with which to contend. Kara had arrived on Earth and had been brought to live with them, and Alex had entered into the phase of her life where ‘protect your sister’ had become the predominant theme. It had become her job, and her job came with a title. _Sister_. Her parents, and her mother especially, had evoked the bonds of kinship, likely for many reasons. The most obvious was that by bringing Kara into their home, her parents had accepted the responsibility of raising her. As guardians, they nominally fulfilled the role of parents. By the transitive property, Alex nominally fulfilled the role of sister. Viewed through its larger cultural meaning, creating a new, extended unit of family with Kara duly enmeshed meant extending protection, support, and loyalty. Consciously or not, she had been placed into the role of protector, with fictive blood ties evoked to strengthen the salience of the position. Kara as sister, rather than Kara as alien boarder, provided anyone who wanted to use it with the leverage to call upon more than duty to remind Alex of her responsibilities. That way, it wasn’t that her life’s purpose was being subsumed to a calling foisted upon her. No, she was _sister_.

Or, maybe she was overthinking it. Maybe she needed to take a sledge hammer to all of the hang-ups the word sister created and plaster over the holes with _best friend_ and see if that changed anything.

It was easier said than done, of course, because the way she thought about and related to Kara was ingrained. Which was why, probably, Kara’s expression grew increasingly strained every time they were in the room together. Alex needed time to sort things out, and Kara needed to not feel like she’d stepped out onto an unstable emotional limb that was beginning to crack.

“I’ll go out on a date with you,” Alex said, because Kara was beginning to slink around her like a shadow that hoped it wouldn’t be seen, all tiny shy waves and lip biting trepidation whenever their eyes met. “If it doesn’t work or if it’s too weird, we won’t ever mention it again and that will be that.”

“Okay. Yeah,” Kara said brightly, the words too quick to be anything other than half terrified/half nervous. “Uh, this weekend?”

Alex would have preferred sooner, if only so that she wouldn’t have the interim to obsess. “Sure.” She swallowed hard, and saw Kara wince in response. “That should work.”

Her first observation was that she was just as awkward about going on a date with Kara as she was about going on a date with any other girl.

She threw herself headfirst into work to crowd out any and all date-related thoughts. As a result, she was ridiculously productive, enough so that she began to wonder if dating Kara might be the best thing that could happen to the scientific side of her CV. She was three-quarters of the way through a monograph by the time the weekend rolled around, and wondered if finishing it was sufficient justification for postponing the date.

Her phone pinged.

_Kara: Pick you up at six!!!!_

She saved the document a final, wistful time.

Her complete avoidance hadn’t truly been complete avoidance, but without the distraction of the many, many other tasks she’d found for herself, complete avoidance left her woefully unprepared. She didn’t know what to wear. Her DEO uniform was clearly off the table, as was the bullet-proof dress she’d borrowed for the CatCo dinner back in Supergirl’s early days. Kara hadn’t provided any hints – and Alex very suddenly hoped that wasn’t because she was supposed to be planning this date – which meant she had absolutely no guide. What would Kara be likely to plan, she wondered? Dinner, definitely. Dessert, most likely. A second dinner might not be completely out of the realm of possibility. Something with an elastic waistband was probably the best functional choice, but even Alex wasn’t at that level of self-sabotage.

Jeans, plaid shirt, jacket, and boots – Kara had known her for half her life, so if she was disappointed, that was on her. A shower and some light make-up and she would be trying without trying too hard. If she waited long enough to get started, she could spend the time up until the knock on her door getting ready, which meant she wouldn’t have to sit around awkwardly contemplating a date that was probably going to be extremely awkward. She could save all her awkward for Kara.

 _Perfect_.

\------

She should have known Kara would go all out. She’d shown up with a parka and smile that begged for forgiveness even before she’d scooped Alex up and flown her to somewhere far, far north of where they’d been, and deposited her in front of an igloo Kara had apparently built by hand at some point.

Things Kara Danvers was not known for: her chill.

“So I was thinking dinner and maybe watching the Northern Lights? I brought cocoa.”

It was hard not to think of all of the things that had happened to culminate in Kara proposing date plans to her from the inside of an igloo. At some point, perhaps while flying the balmy National City skies, Kara had settled on the idea of a picnic and the Northern Lights as an ideal date. She’d scouted out possible date locations in the vast, uninhabited Canadian wilderness, learned how to construct an igloo, and ferried the things necessary for a picnic date to it. _At some point, Kara had flown a thermos of cocoa a couple of thousand miles in hopes of impressing her._

It was surprisingly warm inside, warm enough for Alex to ditch the parka.

Another thing Kara had done? Constructed an igloo just small enough for them to have to sit very, very closely together, laid out a decadently plush blanket to protect them from the ice underneath, and lit candles. Alex had given her a one-date trial period, and Kara had apparently decided she wasn’t going to waste it.

“I picked up some of your favorites,” Kara said, reaching into a small, insulated cooler and emerging with carry-out boxes from the kinds of places Alex went to when she wanted to indulge.

It was a compelling argument, but not nearly as compelling as the way Kara watched her as they worked through the delicacies she’d brought. They’d always been softer around each other, but in the flickering candlelight, Kara looked at her with unfettered adoration. It seemed as if nothing could delight her more than to be there with Alex, talking about nothing of particular importance. She leaned in as close as she dared, let her eyes linger, and risked gentle, fleeting touches. Her fingers flitted over the back of Alex’s hand, settled briefly on her knee, and brushed a crumb from the corner of her mouth. It was a heady and intimidating feeling, being the subject of such reverence, and Alex couldn’t help but be drawn in by it.

Kara brushed a thumb over her palm and Alex had to fight against the impulse to close her hand, trapping it there. She was telling a story about vacationing on the snow plains of the frozen planet Hotaun and finding herself abruptly buried up to her ears in snow when she’d wandered away from the tour group. Alex had heard it before. It made an appearance every time Kara even so much as saw pictures of snow, but there was something comforting about hearing it again. She still laughed at the sound effects and the face Kara made when she tried to recreate her surprise. It was, she realized, a heady kind of intimacy, knowing someone so well that you knew all of their stories and caring for them enough that each retelling was like snuggling up in a favorite blanket.

“Come on,” Kara said, twining their fingers together. “Let’s go see the lights.”

\------

With Kara wrapped around her from behind, Alex was almost warm. She’d pulled on her parka and some gloves and was sipping on a cup of reheated, piping hot cocoa, watching green, blue, and purple dance across the night sky. As far as first dates went, this one was phenomenal.

She looked back at Kara, intent on thanking her because even if this dating thing crashed and burned, this had been an experience to remember. “Kara, this has been…”

The rest of the words left her as Kara’s lips met hers, and she made a muffled sound of surprise and nearly dropped her cocoa. The icy tip of Kara’s nose brushed against her cheek as she deepened the kiss, which was why, Alex told herself, she shivered. It was tentative, each press of soft lips slightly longer than the one before, and after a moment, Alex felt herself responding, meeting each movement with one of her own.

When Kara pulled away, Alex surprised herself by moving to chase after her. “Oh,” she murmured, heat flaring across her cheeks. Kara buried her face in Alex’s parka, having apparently expended her bravery, and Alex’s gloved hand fell down to cover Kara’s bare one where it was wrapped around her waist.

The tendril of heat curling deep in Alex’s belly? That was certainly new.

\------

Alex needed more girl friends, or at least ones that existed in the same space/time continuum she did.

“Impressive,” Sara said, after Alex recounted for her the date. In the background, Alex heard a supporting grunt and a deeply rumbled _Skirt did good_ , and blushed to the roots of her hair.

“Am I on speaker?” she asked in a strangled voice.

“Mick was eavesdropping,” Sara said in her best displeased Captain’s voice, and the grumbles that followed at least seemed to be moving farther away. “Sorry about that. He’s probably looking for new material for his novel. Zari told him he should flesh out his secondary characters.” Her voice turned thoughtful. “I have no idea how he’s going to work out the mechanics of two sets of undulating bosoms.”

“No one’s bosoms undulated,” Alex muttered. “Don’t let him put me in his book.”

She could hear the shrug when Sara replied, “Nothing I can do about it, really. He has four levels of security guarding the manuscript and a thing for fire, and your girlfriend can shoot lasers out of her eyes, so...”

“No one said anything about girlfriends.”

“But you are going on another date.”

She was. Kara had deposited her on her balcony with a shy but hopeful smile, and Alex had found herself nodding her acceptance before Kara had even finished asking if they could do it again. “Yes,” she said, covering her face with her hand. “Sometime this week.”

“Keep me updated on the state of your bosoms.”

Alex scowled at the phone. “I don’t know why I still talk to you.”

“They’re excellent bosoms. I’m rooting for them.”

“I’m going to go now.”

She hung up halfway through what sounded like another demand for updates, oddly bolstered by the support.

\------

Date two, at Alex’s insistence, required no flying or elaborate plans. It was partly because she wasn’t sure she could handle any more surprises and partly because she was worried about the effect it might have on Kara if she felt she had to keep one-upping their last outing. It took her a day to realize that line of reasoning only worked if she anticipated the next date turning into a string of dates, which was unsettling. Almost as unsettling as the hug Kara gave her as they met in front of their date-night restaurant, which was full body and several ticks too long to be platonic.

She’d had dinner with Kara countless times before, she reassured herself as she smoothed a napkin onto her lap. Maybe she’d dressed for this one with more care that she did usually, and maybe she was far more aware of the soft affection in Kara’s eyes, but it was just dinner.

“You look amazing,” Kara said, reaching across the table to take Alex’s hand in hers. Alex tried to return the compliment, but could only manage a strangled whimper.

It was a good thing that Kara could keep up a full conversation with relatively little input from Alex, because Alex managed little more than her order, a few appropriately placed noises of assent, and the occasional full sentence. At some point between finding Kara’s fingers entwined with her own and watching Kara finish off two desserts without help, a switch had flipped. It was a switch labeled _this is a woman you’re allowed to be attracted to_ , followed by _so what do you think_ , and it had destroyed most of her language and reasoning centers.

She thought Kara was beautiful. She thought about her unrestrained smile and the deep lines between her eyebrows when she was flustered, thought about the way she unconsciously adjusted her glasses and the distinctive way her lips moved when she spoke. The line of her neck, the line of her jaw, the way the sweater she was wearing clung to her curves – yes, she was allowed to be attracted to her and yes, she was.

Alex drained the rest of her glass of wine, caught the server’s eye, and gestured for another.

Kara’s brow furrowed and she looked concerned and it was _adorable_. “Alex, is everything okay?”

She needed that glass of wine ASAP. “Uh-huh, yep. Absolutely fine. You were saying?”

This was exactly what she’d been trying to avoid after Maggie. Women who lived halfway around the world, who were far too entangled in their vigilantism for anything else, or who were similarly not interested in commitment beyond a little time spent together pleasurably had been perfect. Those kind of women didn’t have the ability to break her heart, or to make her want things like family and domesticity and the prospect of one day fretting over daycare applications together. Kara, though… she wasn’t sure Kara could be anything but those things.

This had been a horrible idea. This was heartbreak waiting to happen, and this time, it’d take down everything that mattered to her.

“Your heart’s beating really fast,” Kara said softly. When Alex focused on her, Kara was biting her lip, a nervous almost helpless look on her face, as if she knew Alex was in the middle of building up a wall that would bring everything to a crashing halt. “Alex, please.”

“I’m not ready for this,” she said, hands shaking as she pushed away from the table. “I don’t know if I’ll ever be ready for this. Kara, I…”

But what was there to say? Kara’s eyes were gleaming with unshed tears and she’d managed to mangle the fork she was still holding.

Alex took in a deep breath. “It’s better if we just… don’t.”

“Please,” Kara said again, begging.

“I have to go,” Alex said, and fled.

\------

Starting almost as soon as she’d left Kara sitting there, Alex was immediately and unrelentingly plagued by thoughts of what could and might have been. Kara was in love with her and Alex was… she was something that wasn’t necessarily not love, and it was terrifying. Much better to collect all of the _what ifs_ and _maybes_ and lock them away. She didn’t know what she’d been thinking even entertaining the idea, and now what was she left with? The memory of Kara’s sad face? The inescapable realization that she’d never, ever be able to look at Kara again without remembering what it’d been like to kiss her? It wasn’t the sort of thing she could unknow.

It wasn’t the only thing. Kara needed time and she’d respect that, but awkwardly ducking around corners so they wouldn’t run into one another at work only went so far. Kara was Supergirl and Alex was a field agent for the DEO. Emergencies and threats couldn’t be scheduled such that they allowed for respectful distance. Not that Alex would have wanted that. She couldn’t protect Kara from herself but Alex could damn well protect her from everything else.

She could also, apparently, find herself captivated by the flex of muscle in Kara’s thighs when she landed to square off with the menace of the day. The clench of her jaw when she’d really, truly had enough and was ready to put her opponent down for the last time was perhaps appealing enough for Alex to eschew cover for a second longer than she should. She had thoughts about the way Kara’s hair looked after a fight, slightly tousled, like it might look after any sufficiently strenuous physical activity. Like it might look if someone had pressed her down onto a bed and dismantled her.

It made her wonder if her history with Kara was one where love and in love twined around one another, indistinguishable until she’d forced herself to look. Either way, she now found she couldn’t see Kara without seeing possibilities she’d shut herself away from.

Sara called and Alex ignored her. Work called and she responded dutifully. Kara didn’t call and she didn’t stop by and Alex couldn’t blame her. She’d been brave. She’d admitted to how she felt, and she’d placed her feelings in Alex’s care.

Alex had played with them before tossing them aside.

She wanted to tell herself that wasn’t what she’d done. She wanted to tell herself that she’d made a wise and reasoned decision after taking into account all of the probabilities, but she couldn’t allow that level of self-deception. The only thing driving her actions had been panic.

\------

Alex was running on sheer panic. Superman had been attacked by a villain named, of all things, Manchester Black. He sounded like a brand of cheap cigars or some kind of pretentious small batch beer, not a legitimate threat to one of the most powerful beings on Earth. What he actually was involved telepathy and telekinesis and a vendetta against Superman that had reached cataclysmic proportions. Alex didn’t know all of the details because she’d primarily been running from one possibly disastrous scene to the next, but it appeared that Manchester Black had revealed Clark’s identity to more than a handful of villains, all of whom had descended en masse with the intention of killing Superman and/or anyone he loved.

It was inconvenient, undoubtedly, but not necessarily something Superman couldn’t handle on his own except for the fact that Manchester Black was apparently one of the strongest telepaths in the world. Kara had gotten a call from devastated Clark because Lois was dead, and she’d been gone before Alex could even ask questions. It’d taken her 5 hours to follow, because it wasn’t like she could fly in anything other than a hastily requisitioned small aircraft if left to her own devices. By the time she’d arrived, there’d been fights all over the city and this Manchester character gloating and it was honestly a mess. The bright spot was that Lois wasn’t actually dead and that Superman was no longer trapped in a telepathic delusion that convinced him she was, because Kryptonians were not inclined to gently accept the murder of their loved ones. The less bright spot was that it was incredibly difficult to deal with a citizenry without hurting anyone once it had been manipulated to believe that any one of them could single-handedly take down Superman.

J’onn, at least, was immune to the mind-control, and a Manchester Black that had to fight for his life was a Manchester Black that wasn’t nearly as good at keeping a telepathic hold over anyone. That didn’t necessarily stop him from brief uses of telekinesis, though, which is what Alex would come to learn well after the fact had caused Supergirl to literally drop out of the sky. A ridiculously refined bit of telekinetic wizardry impeded the function of a critical flow of blood to the brain just long enough for Supergirl to lose consciousness, and Alex could only watch in horror as she bounced off buildings, balconies, neon signs, and awnings on the way to the ground.

Kara landed in a crater of her own making and hadn’t crawled out of it by the time Alex reached her. The sounds of the ongoing battle faded as she pulled Kara’s head into her lap and checked her pulse – sluggish but strong – and ran her hands over her skull and over any bone she could reach in a desperate attempt to find out what had happened.

“Don’t you leave me,” she said angrily, bending down to press a kiss against Kara’s forehead. “Kara, I swear, if you don’t wake up right now…” A tear streaked down her face. This wasn’t supposed to happen. Kara wasn’t supposed to fall from the sky. She wasn’t supposed to be breathing but unresponsive, because she was essentially invulnerable and some jackass Sid Vicious wannabe was not going to be the one to change that.

She pressed another kiss to Kara’s cheek. “Kara, please,” she urged, voice breaking. “I’ve been stupid. I got scared and ran away but I’ll stop running if you just wake up.” A kiss to her other cheek, longer this time. “I love you. No more hiding.” She kissed her again, desperate and full on the lips. Her heart was racing so fast, adrenalin and fear all mixed together, that it took her a moment to realize Kara was kissing her back. She pulled back with a gasp, searching Kara’s face frantically. Relief rushed through her at the sight of Kara looking up at her, eyes clear.

“You scared me,” she said, kissing Kara again. They were in a crater in the middle of a de-escalating warzone, but Alex didn’t care. She’d watched Kara plummet to the ground for what seemed like no reason at all, and if that wasn’t reason enough to get over her fears and uncertainties and admit to the both of them that she was in love, she didn’t know what was.

Kara’s hand wrapped around the back of her neck as she joined the kiss as a full and enthusiastic participant. It wasn’t the most comfortable position, but comfort was secondary to making it very, very clear that Alex’s declaration of love hadn’t been of the platonic variety.

When they finally pulled away from one another long enough for Alex to catch her breath, Kara was beaming up at her. “So,” she said, playing with the collar of Alex’s tactical vest, “does this mean I get a third date?”

\------

Winn had been right. Immediately after a traumatic injury was the perfect time to push her luck.

\------

Sara stepped through the time portal and into Alex’s apartment in the nascent light of pre-dawn. She sometimes had a little bit of trouble keeping track of time, what with darting in and out of it, but she was fairly sure it’d been at least 6 weeks since she’d heard from Alex. There’d been talk of a second date and then nothing, and Sara needed an update on the progress of the sweetest of superheroes’ quest for romance.

“Alex, you here?”

An indecipherable moan came from the kitchen, which she assumed to be an early morning, pre-coffee reply. Visual seemed to confirm that, because Alex was slumped against the counter in a way that made Sara suspect that she’d be laying on the floor absent its support. She had dark circles under her eyes and her hair was an absolute mess. There was a full pot of coffee steaming away and an empty mug on the countertop in front of it; Alex was looking at both forlornly, like she didn’t have the energy needed to transport one into the other.

“Rough night?” she asked after a quick inspection unearthed no visible injuries.

Alex whimpered and managed a nod. “Why are you here?” she asked in a dry, scratchy voice.

“You haven’t been answering my calls.” Sara looked at her pointedly. “I was promised updates.”

“Been busy.”

From the look of her, Sara suspected she’d been busy taking care of something an apocalyptic level of bad. Nothing had registered on the anachronism meter so it was probably the standard meta-human/alien/other pesky villain level of potential devastation, which as Sara well knew could be very, very draining.

“Did you win?” she asked, lightly shoving Alex out of the way and pouring a cup of coffee. She held it out in Alex’s direction, but Alex couldn’t seem to muster the energy to take it.

Alex nodded tiredly. “Yes. Lots of winning. So much.”

Sara was on the verge of helping her into a chair because Alex seemed on the verge of collapse when Kara came bouncing into the kitchen wearing a tee shirt, a pair of panties, and a wide, satisfied smile.

“There you are,” she said brightly, walking right up to Alex and giving her a kiss that was decidedly not of the friendly variety. Alex whimpered again, letting Kara take all of her weight, and Sara quickly did a bit of re-evaluating. Her new conclusion: Kara Danvers clearly deserved some kind of girl-on-girl medal of honor because Alex was positively wrecked, and not from any DEO-related activities.

With a slight bend of her knees, Kara had Alex over her shoulder in a fireman’s carry. “Hey Sara,” she said, shifting the clearly exhausted Alex so that she was in a more comfortable position. “What’s up?”

She looked at the way Alex’s head was laid ever so gently on Kara’s shoulder and grinned. “Nothing that won’t keep,” she said, giving Kara an appreciative slap on the bicep. “Don’t let me keep you from your duties, Supergirl.”

She got a cocky grin and wiggled eyebrows in return before Kara turned, presumably to take  her girl back to the bedroom, and yeah. Skirt did good.

**Author's Note:**

> So, just a bit of fluff, yeah. This is where I tumbl: [tumblr](http://outlyingoutlier.tumblr.com/)


End file.
